Digitisation programme for library historical catalogues
During the first phase of the “Italian Digital Library” Programme 29 historical catalogues digitisation projects of Italian Libraries have been funded.
From the feasibility study emerged that in some Countries, particularly the Eastern Europe and German language ones, the choice to convert Italian Libraries historical catalogues into digital format has been the starting point to carry out the Digital Library Programme.
From the feasibility study could be observed: “Considering that the access to the descriptive information of the collections and their location, also in function of the virtual reconstruction of the documentary collections, is a prioritary element to any digitisation project coordinated among different structures, the solution seems to be productive and intelligent, as well as economic and easily practicable.
This praxis offers the opportunity to provide on the Internet, in short time and small costs, a lot of bibliographic information of ancient works now present in the Italian libraries but not yet recovered within the National Library Service – SBN. For this documents’ recover the image format scan solution presents the advantage to allow researchers to visualize catalogue cards in the same way they have been created and librarians to gradually index the headings.
For this first digitisation programme, the BDI Guide Committee has created a workgroup with the following aims:
- to coordinate digitisation projects;
- to define the technical requirements and the standards for the materials’ scan;
- to study uniform criterions for images indexing;
- to find out the adequate software for the catalogues consultation via Internet;
- to coordinate the implementation activities, in the libraries, for the catalogues’ query interface.
The Group defined a unique technical specification schema for data acquisition, which can be personalized by any library, and on the base of which each library has carried out its own tender. In this technical schema have been defined the requirements for the catalogues optical scan and images indexing of volumes and catalogue cards.
Concerning software realization for digital catalogues consultation within web sites, the Guide Committee has decided for technical, organizational, and econimic part, to entrust ICCU with the purchase of application procedures to guarantee a uniform and integrated access to all digitised catalogues.
The tender to realize a web interface, was awarded by the Società Amanuense which realized a software, in a test phase at the moment, for the query on a single library catalogue as well as the contemporary query on catalogues of all the libraries taking parts in the programme.
To coordinate all the libraries’ activities ICCU sent a questionary to acquire all information on the single projetcs’ characteristics and on the state of the work.
Is available this Internet address http://cataloghistorici.bdi.sbn.it
to consult the historical catalogues already digitised